Pages

Tuesday, April 20

frozen food

This weekend I took out some frozen cut up squash and racked my brain to come up with a recipe for dinner that the whole family would eat, including my one year old. I then remembered a mama from my playgroup mentioned a butternut squash lasagna with white sauce. I whipped open my "Art of Simple Food" cookbook by the coveted Alice Waters and found the white sauce recipe and went to cookin'.

First I browned a medium sizeonion in 3 tablespoons of Humboldt Creamery butter. After the onion was good and brown I added the thawed squash pieces and a 1/4 cup of water. I covered for 10 minutes and occasionally stirred while the pieces cooked. Oh and I added a dash of salt and pepper.

Meanwhile I prepared the White Sauce using 3 tablespoons of butter browned on high heat. Then whisking in 3 tablespoons of white unbleached flour, a little at a time, on low heat and continually whisking for about three minutes creating a roux. Then the 2 1/2 cups of milk was added and stirred until it resembled thick cream. The temp was kicked up once again and salt, a dash of nutmeg and cayenne was added again whisking quite frequently. The last minute or two I added fresh copped oregano and thyme while it simmered.

I prepared my 9x13 dish with olive oil and poured a layer of White Sauce down and on top, I laid fresh lasagna noodles(the store bought work just fine too). Next was the squash and another layer of white sauce following with two more layers with the pasta as the base. I ended with pasta on top with a last layer of white sauce topped with mozzarella cheese.

The lasagna was covered and baked at 350 for 35 minutes and uncovered for additional 10 minutes.

The family approved of this dish and rated it a 7 out of 10. Not bad for frozen butternut squash!